Customer Reviews

Solace: Rituals of Loss and Desire

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I have read everything of Mary Sojourner's work that I can lay my hands on. Her work is intense, gritty, and deeply moving. This book is no exception. Keep it up, Mary.

Keep in mind, this review is not being generated by a erudite, literary scholar ... having barely passed college english. Thus, this is the simple opinion of a complex personality.

I encountered Mary Sojourner on a Yoga web site where her chapter on "Occupying Less" was presented. So enticed by her ability to articulate her thoughts on simplicity and nature that I ordered the book, clueless as to its future impact on my life.

Initially, I was struck by her spiritual movement from dull, flat grays to brilliant, primary neons which interplayed with the shadows and lights. The grey world of childhood nuturing is juxtaposed against her eight year old ability to disconnect from the pain by focusing on Christmas lights... and hence forth, always seeking those luminous, transcendental moments of escape from the gray, monotonous ache.

Sojourner's ability to express the concept of disconnection as both a survival skill and as a destructive force resonate with those seeking that fine thread of balance upon which many of us try to walk. Her absorption into a new homeland, the desert, and her desire to rally the cry for protection is inspiring. Yet, through her struggles as an environmental activist, she cogently identifies her own personal obstacles and emotional pitfalls.

If for no other reason than cronehood, I believe this book should be a must read for all women who are seeking their path.

I bought this book while hiking out in the SW. I found within its covers a beautifully written map of a life lived full on. What amazing healing it provided. I yearn for those who can express and feel even one third of what Mary Sojourner has shared. If you want exquisite writing, uncut stories of raw life and insights into the human soul--read this. You will be changed.

The most compelling aspect of this rather indulgent memoir is Sojourner's retelling of her life and times with her ill mother. You really feel a sense of the anguish. Otherwise, the book unveils itself in a series of incomplete vignettes that are packaged like second-rate newspaper columns at best, and generally self-righteous and lacking in introspection.

Sojourner is a real stalwart in Flagstaff; she manages to raise ver voice the loudest at most rallies. In truth, though, she doesn't live in the woods, as the marketing would like to present, but right off a paved highway in a cluster of cabins for tourists, two minutes from your local Walmart. And her rants against the corporatization of publishing now ring hollow given that she avidly sought to be published by a corporate juggernaut like Simon Schuster (and its Scribner imprint), instead of a truly independent press like Seal. Bottom line: so much for taking a stand; take the money and run.